Anthony "AJ" Jones
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Anthony "AJ" JonesBorn and raised in the mean streets of Baltimore, acity famous for its culture of drugs and murder, Anthony“AJ” Jones embarked on a reign of te…

Anthony "AJ" Jones

Born and raised in the mean streets of Baltimore, acity famous for its culture of drugs and murder, Anthony“AJ” Jones embarked on a reign of terror that thecity had never seen before and has never seen since. Inthe violent world of Bodymore’s inner city drug gangs,at the young age of 18, Anthony Jones reigned king.Holding court in East Baltimore’s gritty neighborhoodsand holding fast to his thuglife ideals of “get mine or bemine.”

The most feared drug dealer and gangster in CharmCity, AJ allegedly ordered murders from his prison cell.He was a boss in every sense of the word, from thestreets of his hood to the federal penitentiaries. Hisreputation of being willing to kill anyone who stood inhis way was demonstrated by the fact that AJ reputedlyhad his own brother killed because he believed that hewas snitching on him. AJ played the game the way itwas supposed to be played, as long generations of BMorehustlers had before him, but with his own vicioustwist. He will forever be remembered in B-More as thelegend that he is.

Part 5- The Beef

AJ was locking shit down but not everyone boweddown. Dudes were still willing to get theirs, AJ’s reputationor not. AJ was still flesh and blood, no matterhow menacing he was. Elway Williams was an EastBaltimore dealer with a $15,000 a day heroin ring thatprosecutors said competed against Jones. Instead ofsharing the market, AJ and Elway decided to battle itout, turning East Baltimore into a killing zone. Thebeef which started out as a death for death retributiontype-thing, quickly spiraled out of control, turning intoa murderous web between the warring drug organizations,where victory or death became the only options.“You had love from both sides,” Sweat says. “But thatshit turned into a snowball flip. The beef started oversome foolishness. Both Anthony and Elway had egos.Anthony was quiet, but vicious and Elway thought hewas Al Capone. He was a Bumpy Johnson wanna-betype nigga. And he didn’t think Anthony had it in him,but he found out.” Elway would lock horns with AJ ina battle to the death. May the victor win all the spoilsand be crowned the king of East Baltimore.

“It was always a twist to that.” Sweat says. “Whowas gonna be the king of East Baltimore? They wasplaying for keeps. They was going back and forth. Itwas some jealous type shit. They were trying to geteach other.” And in this environment of fear and suspicion, bravedo and one-upmanship, retribution and death were swift. “The streets make you. They say who the boss is. Both Elway and Ant’s ego’s were bigger than their pride.” Sweat concludes. Assistant UnitedStates Attorney Christine Manuelian said that the Jonesand Williams groups frequently battled on city streets.“There are a number of murders that have been allegedlylinked to both organizations,” she said. In EastBaltimore the bullets were flying. It wasn’t Beirut, butit was close. The deadly dance was played out withMac 10’s, minu Uzi’s and sawed off shotguns.

Describing the duel of drug kingpins that created aclimate of kill or be killed, AJ’s rival, the heroin dealerElway testified that he was in a race against time to assassinate his nemesis who was allegedly intent onkilling him. “He was out to assassinate all of us. Wehad to fix the problem and the problem was AnthonyJones. We had to continue to search to assassinate him.It was either they kill us or we kill them.” Elway testifiedafter becoming a prosecution snitch. He testifiedthat no show of strength- he frequently had armedbodyguards protecting him- seemed to be able to wardoff Jones’ attempts to assassinate him. AJ was on a mission. And he was trying to win at all costs. It was like50 Cent said, get rich or die trying.

“It was all dudes from East Baltimore,” Kid says ofthe beef. It started in early 95 when Baby Dan and AJformed an alliance against Elway. AJ killed Elway’spartner and his former running mate Anthony Greenfirst. On October 3, 1995, AJ was shot in the arm.“The second time he was shot was when Elway put thehit on him.” Kid says. And Sweat goes into more detail,“Anthony told me, he said he came out some house andsomebody tried to assassinate him. His man was therewith the car to pick him up and when the shots startedbusting off and Anthony got hit, he jumped on the backof the car to get away. While he was in John HopkinsHospital they got his man Little Net. This was thebreaking point. Elway was the one he was beefing withand the whole thing with this was when Tupac killedLittle Net for Elway and didn’t get AJ too, he basicallysigned his own death warrant.”

Raymund “Tupac” Harrison admitted to the killingon October 5th, 1995 of Deshane “Little Net” Carter,Jones’ right hand man, who was gunned down on EastMadison Street. Tupac said it was done to avenge theslaying earlier that year of Anthony Green, Elway’spartner. Harrison said during his guilty plea that LittleNet was thought by Elway to have been the trigger manin the Green killing. After AJ was shot up and LittleNet killed, Elway was profiling like he was the king ofEast Baltimore. “He was at 32nd Street Plaza, whenwe got over there, Elway’s sitting at the bar. He tellsthe bartender all drinks on me. I noticed he was celebrating because they killed shorty. I was wondering what was running through Anthony’s mind. When Elwayleft, his sky blue 735 BMW pulled up front of the club.Tupac opened the door for him like he was a don.” Sweat says. But Elway slept on AJ, who recovered,planned and had his revenge six months later.

AJ coerced three teenage members of Elway’s crewto cross their boss and kill him so that AJ wouldn’t killthem. On February 26, 1996, the double cross wentdown. The three dudes opened fire on Elway and hisbodyguard while they were sitting in the car with him.From the back seat they put a bullet in the bodyguard’shead and then started firing on Elway who was in a caradjacent to them on a dark portion of Wilcox and BiddleStreets in East Baltimore. Derrick Rivers, the bodyguardwas fatally shot in the back of the head. Elway said the three men were Alan “Wali” Chapman, Warren“Red Dog” Hill and Mark “Keedy” Coles. He said they turned against him in favor of AJ. “I could smellthe gunfire,” Elway said remembering how he jumpedout of the car wounded and ran into the cold nightdown the dimly lit street. “I heard footsteps behind meand six, seven, eight gunshots. I was hit two or threetimes in the chest and back.” Elway ran to a home onnearby Valley Street, knocked on the door and collapsedafter a woman let him inside. He spent nearly three weeks recuperating at a medical center where Jones was alleged to have made the next attempt to gethim.

“This what they did,” Sweat says. “That’s how theybrought them down. Double crossing. Anthony toldme when the dudes came to make the deal, ‘You wantto make it right? You want to kill Elway?’ He was gonna use them to kill Elway and then kill them. He wason the double cross. You got to like his style. He was vicious. Much love to that nigga. I almost got caught up in that bullshit. When Elway got to beefin’ with Anthony, Elway got in a bind, he was fucked up. I gave him a couple of bricks. I didn’t want to get in themix. He called me, we breaking shit down at the stash,he was like where you at? The day he called me he waswith those little kids, the ones who shot him. I nevergot with them, that was the day the double cross wasin. They pumped three or four bullets through the windowto kill him. I could have been caught up in thatfoolishness. We lost a lot of good people. It was goingboth ways. You didn’t know who was who. Peoplewere taking money for hits.”

And AJ took it a step further. He wanted Elway dead,so he turned to his corrupt cop to kidnap Elway fromhis hospital bed. AJ offered the cop 5 grand for info onElway’s whereabouts and offered 10 grand to the copto arrest Elway and turn him over to his crew. He evenattempted to get one of his crew to sneak into the hospitalwith a hypodermic needle full of Drano to inject into Elway’s veins. AJ was gangster for real. Court papersfiled in U.S. District Court accused AJ of conspiringto have his rival, Elway Williams, kidnapped fromhis hospital bed by having him falsely arrested andturned over to Mr. Jones. But the cop didn’t do it andElway, 29, was arrested and charged with sellingheroin. At a later bail hearing U.S. Magistrate Paul M.Rosenburg said about Mr. Jones, “One can only assumethat the kidnapping was for the purpose of an executionor to inflict substantial harm to the individual.”And before it was all over, AJ probably regretted thatthe hospital bed kidnap move didn’t go down, becauseElway would turn into a snitch and the star witnessagainst him